Who buys iPhones?

(AFP PHOTO/PATRICK LIN)

Wealthy, young existing Apple customers are more likely to buy another Apple iPhone rather than consumers who own neither an Apple iPod nor iPad.

Not surprisingly a survey released August 4 by market research group Nielsen found that iPad and iPhone purchases were more popular amongst young people with higher incomes; only 15 percent of iPad users are over 56 years old.

On average, iPad owners are wealthier than the majority of mobile subscribers: 40 percent of iPad subscribers report earning over €75,000 ($100,000), double the 20 percent average of total mobile subscribers whom earn the same amount.

However the survey, conducted amongst 64,000 mobile subscribers, did find that 51 percent of people who already own an iPad but not an iPhone would buy an iPhone as their next smartphone, compared to only 25 percent of people who don't own an iPad or iPhone already.

Additionally 85 percent of current iPhone owners would buy another iPhone as their next phone, and a huge majority, 91 percent, of people who already own both an iPad and an iPhone would buy or upgrade to another iPhone as their next smartphone.

The report attributes Apple's brand loyalty to the iPad and iPhone's familiarity of use and the ability to share applications between iPad and iPhone devices.

Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform are engaged in a bitter struggle for dominance in the smartphone market, though neither side has yet emerged as a clear winner.